If you want to compete in today’s faster-paced pickleball, a strong forehand drive is a must. Learn more about five core techniques that will instantly upgrade your drive shot — covering stance, weight transfer, footwork, paddle preparation, and more. These simple adjustments can unlock more power, accuracy, and consistency from the pickleball baseline.
Your pickleball stance
A minor change to your pickleball stance can radically change your drive. Many pickleball beginners close their stance, which comes with a lot of added difficulty with your footwork. When you open your stance and place your weight on your right foot, it creates a nice balance point for rotational power.
You will want an open stance with your weight on your right (or your paddle-side) foot. That will allow you to rotate and generate power moving forward.
There are going to be times when the ball is shallow and you have to step in with your opposite foot and you’ll be a little bit more closed, but if possible, keep your stance open with your weight on your paddle-side foot.
Utilize your opposite arm
When you're hitting an open stance drive, a big mistake players can make is letting your non-dominant, or opposite, arm hang to the side. Oftentimes if you're doing that, you're going to overcompensate with your balance and you're going to lose a lot of control that way. In order to mitigate this, you should instead have a really strong arm, which will get your torso and core involved in the shot. You're going to be a lot more balanced and you're to get more power on your serve naturally. Make sure that your elbows are pointing forward towards your target because that gets your torso involved, have a strong arm, and get a lot of momentum on your drive.
Having a loose wrist
When you’re hitting a forehand drive, many beginner players will grip the paddle really hard because they're trying to generate power. However, power on the forehand drive shot actually comes from a whipping motion with your wrist — you can't do that if your wrist is really firm, especially if you're using more of a semi-western grip.
Having a short and compact drive
When you're hitting a drive, it's important to know that the acceleration phase is very short and very fast. When you're hitting a dink, your paddle will likely be moving the same speed throughout the whole movement. That is not the same with a drive, especially an aggressive drive.
Instead of thinking you're going to have everything moving the same speed throughout the movement, think of having a very short line of acceleration with your swing path. Think about letting your follow-through go. That short and fast acceleration phase is going to give you a lot of control with the drive and your ability to aim with the drive.
The closer you get towards the net, the shorter this short line needs to be. Near the back of the net, you can have a little bit longer, but the closer you are to the net, your short line needs to be shorter and more compact because you have less area of the court to work with.
Active feet & good footwork
When you're prepping for the ball, it's important to stay light on your feet so you can get in the right position. If you're flatfooted when you hit a drive or if your feet aren't active, you're going to make a lot of errors and be reaching and overextending yourself.
To see these tips in action, please watch the video above.